Speak now or forever hold your breath.
That was Dave Rennie’s message to his centres ahead of their Bledisloe finale in Brisbane on Saturday, after the Wallabies’ communication skills – or lack thereof – were found out during last weekend’s hiding in Sydney.
Ahead of Bledisloe III, the Wallabies were at pains to point out that their decision-making must be better. That key aspect was put down to requiring better communication across the board.
But rather than see an improvement, the Wallabies were guilty of kicking possession away during their 43-5 defeat and the lack of voice and direction from the midfield was the take-away from the sorry Sydney night.
Indeed, it was an aspect picked up by former All Blacks first-five Andrew Mehrtens in the wash-up of the loss, who said the lack of voice was hurting the Wallabies.
“The difference is (Richie) Mo’unga, when he’s looking for options, he’s got guys calling to him, giving him outs,” Mehrtens said on Fox Sports.
“(Noah) Lolesio hasn’t had the same. We saw the grubber kick right up on attack just gave away possession because he had no-one giving him an option; coming back on defence, going down the ball, he wasn’t being spoken to.”
BE THERE FOR BLEDISLOE IV AT SUNCORP STADIUM, SATURDAY, NOV 7: BUY TICKETS HERE
In response, Rennie has dropped fly-half Lolesio back to the bench and Irae Simone all together for their second Tri Nations fixture, replacing them with Mr. Fix It Reece Hodge and the softly-spoken centre Hunter Paisami.
But he didn’t stop there.
The Wallabies’ halves pairing of Nic White and Hodge were muzzled throughout the week, as Rennie put the onus on Paisami and his midfield partner Jordan Petaia to start using their voice to help relieve some of the pressure of the playmakers.
“Dave just gave me a notice throughout the week to get my comms up to help out on the inside,” said Paisami, who will wear the No.12 jersey for the first time in his professional career.
“That’s what I’ve been doing all week, just trying to improve my comms and talking and bossing the forwards around.
“There was a few training sessions where he was telling the 10s and 9s not to talk.”
Rennie added: “We wanted to reward Hunter (with selection at 12). We thought he’s been really strong in the first two Tests, gave us real impact off the bench again, so we want to reward that.
“We think Jordy’s just going to get better and better.
“And we’ve put a lot of acid on those boys to communicate a lot more and, again, they’ve responded well, it’s crucial that got guys feeding a lot of information in, but they’ve got a lot of other strengths that make them hard to leave out.”
READ MORE:
SELECTION SHOCK: Why Rennie has turned to Hodge for Bledisloe finale
ANALYSIS: How the All Blacks shattered the Wallabies' hopes and the tactic Rennie must 'rethink'
'DELIGHTED TO SEE SELECTORS GIVE THEM A GO': Rennie's Wallabies told not to 'panic' and stick with youth
